Addressing representatives of Member States, Commission Representatives and MEPs, this event will release and discuss new evidence on which incentives Europe can give to accelerate the ultra-low-emission vehicles market and reach climate targets in the transport sector.

The announcement of new CO2 standards for cars, vans and, for the first time in Europe, trucks forms the centrepiece of the EU’s strategy for low-emission mobility and has been welcomed by Transport & Environment (T&E) as a meaningful step in the fight against climate change. But the Commission’s plan is completely devoid of ambition on cutting emissions from aviation and shipping, the sustainable transport group said.

In these documents, T&E responds to the public consultations on the EU Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) and Land use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). As transport is currently the largest sector within the ESD, it is vital to have a strong ESD with limited flexibilities to avoid watering down the EU climate targets and to achieve reductions in the transport sector. The way LULUCF is dealt with is also fundamental to avoiding a decrease in the level of ambition in sectors such as transport. For these reasons, T&E provided input to both consultations in close coordination with other environmental NGOs.

This paper, as well as the attached explanatory briefing, attempts to quantify the challenge for EU member states in reducing transport emissions under the expected 2030 ‘effort sharing decision’ (ESD) and the extent to which CO2 standards for cars, vans and trucks can help achieve those targets. It makes very clear what the impacts are of mandating, or not, improved vehicle efficiency.

Ahead of the Communication on the European Energy Union with a forward-looking climate policy, NGOs wrote to the College of the European Commission asking it to pay special attention to the decarbonisation of transport. They ask commissioners to include a comprehensive strategy for electrification of transport as one of their priorities for moving Europe further down the road of climate and energy security and towards reducing its global land foot-print.

Ahead of its discussion on the EU’s key priorities for the next decade, seven stakeholder organisations from industry, transport and cities wrote to the College of the European Commission regarding the creation of a European Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy. They called on the commissioners to focus on the transport sector, which represents about a third of the EU’s overall energy consumption and is almost exclusively dependent on imported fossil fuels.

It now seems that the revision of the Energy Tax Directive (ETD) is dead. Given how negotiations have been dragging on for three and a half years while only eating away at everything the Commission proposal sought to achieve, it is probably good to call it a day and start afresh.

EU governments last week agreed three modest targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, increase the share of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency by 2030. Environmental groups said the goals would not do enough to cut Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels and put it on track to meet its own 2050 climate pledges.

Even if carbon prices in Europe’s emissions trading system (ETS) trebled from today’s levels [1], including road transport in the ETS would only reduce oil use and CO2 emissions from transport by 3% over the next 15 years, a new study by Cambridge Econometrics reveals. This level is insufficient for road transport to make a proportionate contribution to Europe’s climate and energy security goals.

A study ordered by the Commission has recommended the EU’s approach to regulating car and van emissions should be changed, as it is not helping to keep the environmental impact of road vehicles to a minimum.